Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Good stuff this month. I’m about halfway through Steve Pressfield’s new book on Alexander the Great. Excellent beach reading if you have dreams of taking over the world. For other suggestions, let’s see what Frank’s been up to...
Welcome to summer. It’s all I can really say. Fortunately we haven’t been terrorized yet, but all indicators point in that direction. What’s even more exciting than the threat of terror? Two great books to read which will take your mind off things, and maybe make you rich at the same time. It feels like I’m always defending my self in this column; from talk bakers and people who write me to voice their thoughts. That’s fine. When I set out to write this column I tried to find books that I was going to like, because I want the reader’s on this site to get the right information so when they go the bookstore they don’t come home with John Grisham. Even if you do, it’s not your fault, you’ve been brainwashed. So far so good, it’s been almost four years and I’m happy to bring you stuff that I think you’ll like. Quite often I find books that looked good, but turned out to be losers.
Until next month, It’s Not A Secret Until I Tell Someone.
Breakfast With Sharks by Michael Lent
Three Rivers Press
Maybe it’s Kurtwood Smith whose work I always love in ‘That 70’s Show’, Red (you know him, he was in ‘To Die For’, ‘Shadow’s and Fog’, and umm… ‘Fortress’), or maybe, just maybe, it’s Beth Grant, whose work you’ll know immediately from ‘Donnie Darko’, “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion”, or Richard Edson, whose work I need not list, it’s a combination of this talent, collectively or at it’s parts that I like the most. I’m speaking of course of ‘Hard Scrambled’, a trailer for a movie that looks to be in the bag, but no one has heard of yet.
Yet.
The trailer has a little too much music in it if I can find a flaw, but Kurtwood Smith, instructing someone on the phone to finish a beating with; “Then you gotta fuck him in the ass. So he won’t go to the cops.” Is enough to get my attention and thankfully the music that so bothers me, is intriguing all the same, for what it doesn’t allow the viewer to absorb, which is the story. In a lot of ways this looked like ‘Red Rock West’, which is no slap in the face. Most of the action takes place in a diner, but we’re treated to a few shockingly crisp exteriors that look like vintage L.A., which I love. There’s a little mystery to the action, a strange twist perhaps, a beating, some subtle lingerie moments, and overall I’d pay to see this movie. And at least an extended trailer to give me a better idea as to what it’s all about. Matthew Heckerling is a bold and talented director of photography, his camera moves are fluid and seamless, which says a lot for the budget on this, which must have been microscopic. The professionals in that field leaves much to be desired in most of Hollywood, but unknowns like Heckerling, won’t be unknown for long after this gem hits the silver screen. I have author and screenwriter Michael Lent to thank for this trailer; he sent it along with his book ‘Breakfast with Sharks’, just released from Three Rivers Press. It’s unusual that I ever read a book that’s sent to me by an author who prefaces the book with a query to my yahoo account. To be honest it’s nothing personal, but unless you’re Cormac McCarthy, I like to find my own books. It’s just me, (Joseph Gangemi and ‘Inamorta’, I apologize). Michael Lent got my interest when I finished the first chapter and realized this guy is really onto something.
Sure Syd Field will give you the nut’s and bolts the “how to” on writing a screenplay, Michael Lent goes a thousand steps further and show’s you in accessible detail how to actually make a living as a screenwriter. Which is not something that I’ve seen successfully conveyed in book form for a long time. Starting with a very important chapter, Basics – Your Decision to go Pro. This chapter talks about your timing, being ready, and having the right facts to help you along with your motivation to actually do this screenwriting thing for a living. Next, you get the obligatory chapter on dealing with rejection, sure we all know it’s tough, and we say we’ll deal with the “no’s” when they come, but Mr. Lent gives you a formula to apply to those rejections. Because as much as you say you can handle it, you can’t. I speak from experience, and so does Mr. Lent. It’s probably the most important chapter in the book. Mr. Lent covers stuff in this book that is so simple; you forget its part of the process. Relocating to Los Angeles. Because as Richard Price told me personally, if you want to write a novel, you move to New York, if it’s a screenplay you desire, then go west to L.A. Finally the first section of this book talks about a critical focal point in all writers lives, their “voice”. You have one, but do you use it in your work? How do you make it stand out? We’re treated to some very simple and accessible formulas to dealing with that “voice”. Mr. Lent does all this with out being condescending. After that, you basically get a primer for how to get a job in L.A. and where to get started. Did you know you need to protect your work? Did you also know where to get that work protected? Those questions and much, much more are answered in Breakfast with Sharks. Mr. Lent talks about networking, making friends, where to go, where to get an apartment, where to get a temp job, it’s a full service starter kit for $14.00. What’s even more exciting is the last chapter; extra credit followed Q &A where real questions are answered. Finally there’s a glossary and resource list of outlets to help you formulate and finalize your script. You kids in AICN land, if you want to be the next Shane Black, and these days who doesn’t, then this book is vital to achieving that success. I just wish Michael Lent would write a book like this for the publishing world. Maybe his editor at Three Rivers could commission it? Michael told me that he wanted to have some of these chapters perforated so you could tear them out and put them in your hip pocket. Great idea. Actually if you get this book in a down loadable fashion, then you could view it on a PDA, and your dreams will come true.
When the Nines Roll Over and other stories by David Benioff
Viking
I remember getting an advance copy of The 25th Hour a month or so before it came out and ignored it completely after reading the description in the beginning about Monty finding the nearly dead dog. Later I went back and made sure I had a clean hardcover, first edition and that the advance reading copy was in pristine shape. Unsigned they’re worth about $300 each. Kakutani’s New York Times Review catapulted the 25th Hour into the literary solar system. As soon as The 25th Hour came out in paperback I absorbed it like a man lost in the desert devours a pond of water. Benioff is a man who writes like a superstar. His sentences bleed perfection, complete in their structure and fulfilled by their poignancy. Monty Brogan is nothing if not a fantastically riveted tragic hero. “Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.”
I’ve quoted it before, to hell with it, I’ll quote it again I’m sure. Great line. What’s even more amazing about that book and the movie, which followed, was that Benioff adapted his own work so well. I’ll admit that I hated that make believe ending, but after repeated viewings you notice the weight of emotion that it carries, especially Brian Cox picking up Ed Norton that fateful morning. It’s brutal, but it’s the price you pay in this country for getting your hand caught in the “substance” jar.
Then I read an article that Benioff wrote in Details magazine, which mentioned he had a collection of short stories coming, entitled ‘When the Nines Roll Over and other stories’. What the fuck? Who comes up with a title that good? David Benioff does. It sat on my shelf for a month, it teased me, begged me to be read, I waited, knowing it was going to be something special. It was, it is, and it always will be.
Some people, (literary agents) tell you that short story collections are usually published as a favor to an author whom they have under contract. On there own collections don’t sell, (literary agents, again say this) and it’s not generally true, sometimes they can stand-alone. ‘Kissing in Manhattan’ is a perfect example. This book may have been a favor, but then Carroll and Graf who published The 25th Hour would have gotten behind this. They didn’t because the commercial juggernaut known as Viking threw Benioff all the money in the world and outbid his original publisher (just a guess, if it’s not true, then why let Benioff go?), they publish Nora Roberts for God’s sake, the list of terrible’s at Viking/Penguin is too long for this column. Granted The 25th Hour in hardcover created middling heat, but nothing sensational. Having just finished WTNRO, I’m here to tell you that you can pre-order this off Amazon right now. Don’t waste your time hoping it will be good and browsing it online or in your bookstore. From the get go we meet characters who startle us with their independent brilliance.
The focal points of these episodes are men and women on the verge of something. What? It waits for you. I’d almost rather not review this book in any formal detail. Not spoiling it is very difficult. A decision, a past confrontation, a choice that will define them or help to sharpen the edges around their lives. All these paths, taken or not, leave a permanent mark on the reader, for a long time. In ‘Neversink’, you toil with Frankie as he decides to use his spare set of keys to let himself into his ex-girlfriends apartment to steal the ashes of her father. You think he’s doing the right thing. You ultimately find out that he did, but the true history of those remains finds it’s way into your dreams. In ‘Merde For Luck’, you blister and recoil at the painter’s pain when he discovers his lover died for no reason. Sure, it was AIDS but there’s a reason that none of you, anyone, or me could imagine. It’s Benioff’s power of persuasion. His passion for cinching the nine ball off the far rail, one handed, as he takes your money like a man with a plan only he’s privy too. Why the pants shitting scene in the beginning of ‘Merde for Luck’ why? You don’t understand, but the shame of it won’t hurt you until your finished. The title story, ‘When the Nines Roll Over’, confronts you with a record executive that is out for success. A bold and daring thief in the night, moving with expert precision to find that jewel in the rough. You’ll have trouble with his name. But anyone whose been woken up in the night by a loud continuous noise will identify directly with the ending. Finally, it’s the ‘Garden of No’ that I loved. Rejection in all forms is hard to take. Actress, actors and writers can all feel that pain. Benioff translates his own pain, from years of rejections into this charming little set piece revolving around an aspiring actress on the verge of very big things. David Benioff is a writer at the start of his career and a man with vast talents at his beck and call on an almost constant basis. There isn’t a clunker in this collection. His powers are matched by Dan Chaon and Elwood Reid’s early work. He stays on the planet and in your minds; he’s just so good it will make you jealous. I can’t remember it exactly, but it’s like Richard Price’s character telling Nick Nolte’s character in ‘Life Lessons’: “I see your paintings and I just wanna divorce my wife and become a painter.” This book is that good. You just want to throw everything you know about good writing out the window and start fresh with this amazing collection.
Sure, write me, if you have something to say.
Frank Bascombe
As always, Frank, thanks. Nice work.
"Moriarty" out.
